WASHINGTON — Former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas sat slightly slumped in his wheelchair on the Senate floor on Tuesday, staring intently as Senator John Kerry gave his most impassioned speech all year, in defense of a United Nations treaty that would ban discrimination against people with disabilities.

Mr. Dole last March. A majority of his fellow Republicans voted against the treaty, citing concerns about sovereignty.
Senators from both parties went to greet Mr. Dole, leaning in to hear his wispy reply, as he sat in support of the treaty, which would require that people with disabilities have the same general rights as those without disabilities. Several members took the unusual step of voting aye while seated at their desks, out of respect for Mr. Dole, 89, a Republican who was the majority leader.

Then, after Mr. Dole’s wife, Elizabeth, rolled him off the floor, Republicans quietly voted down the treaty that the ailing Mr. Dole, recently released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, so longed to see passed.

A majority of Republicans who voted against the treaty, which was modeled on the Americans With Disabilities Act, said they feared that it would infringe on American sovereignty.

Among their fears about the disabilities convention were that it would codify standards enumerated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — and therefore United Nations bureaucrats would be empowered to make decisions about the needs of disabled children — and that it could trump state laws concerning people with disabilities. Proponents of the bill said these concerns were unfounded.

The measure, which required two-thirds support for approval, failed on a vote of 61 to 38.

Mr. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, his voice rising as senator after senator moved slowly into the chamber, rejected the concerns of Republicans and made a moral argument for approval of the treaty.

Mr. Dole, he said, had not come to the Senate floor “to advocate for the United Nations.”

“He is here because he wants to know that other countries will come to treat the disabled as we do,” he added.

Approval of the treaty, Mr. Kerry said, would demonstrate that “what we do here in the United States Senate matters.” He added, “Don’t let Senator Bob Dole down.”

A handful of Republican senators voted for the measure, notably Senator John McCain of Arizona, in opposition to the other Arizona Republican, Senator Jon Kyl. The others who supported it were Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas praised the treaty in a news release with Mr. McCain in May but voted against it. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi voted yes at the beginning of the roll call vote and then switched his vote to no. Calls to the offices of Mr. Moran and Mr. Cochran were not returned.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the measure would return to the Senate floor in the 113th Congress.

“It is a sad day when we cannot pass a treaty that simply brings the world up to the American standard for protecting people with disabilities because the Republican Party is in thrall to extremists and ideologues,” he said in a statement.

We literally had to do NOTHING different. We already have our Americans with Disabilities Act, this just ensures that other countries do the same.

You know, so that when disabled Americans -- like our injured vets -- visit other countries, they'd have the same kind of access to public transportation and other things, they way they do here at home. This is not only pissing on the UN (congrats GOP, we know that's all you really want), but it's also pissing on every disabled American that travels abroad.

Waste of time trying to pass a treaty that has no teeth to enforce it. what are they going to do? Obama going to call the German chancellor and complain that the wheel chair ramp entering the BMW museum isn't wide enough?

Washington, GTFO here with these stupid things that do nothing but waste time and money and actually fix some problems at home

Waste of time trying to pass a treaty that has no teeth to enforce it. what are they going to do? Obama going to call the German chancellor and complain that the wheel chair ramp entering the BMW museum isn't wide enough?

Washington, GTFO here with these stupid things that do nothing but waste time and money and actually fix some problems at home

If we had supported the treaty countries that want to be on our good side would be more likely to support it's measures. There are a number of issues more important to the country than this one but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter.

This treaty would have given the UN oversight of the healthcare and education choices that parents with special needs make. If it had passed, CRPD would have became the law of the land under the US constitutions supremacy clause. It would have trumped state laws and would have been used as precedent by federal and state judges.

The treaty also would have opened the door to promoting permit sterilization or abortion for the disabled on an international scale. Read article 25 that states " free or affordable healthcare including the area of sexual and reproductive health and population based health programs". Meaning global community could force America to sanction sterilization or abortion for the disabled at taxpayers expense.

This treaty would have given the UN oversight of the healthcare and education choices that parents with special needs make. If it had passed, CRPD would have became the law of the land under the US constitutions supremacy clause. It would have trumped state laws and would have been used as precedent by federal and state judges.

The treaty also would have opened the door to promoting permit sterilization or abortion for the disabled on an international scale. Read article 25 that states " free or affordable healthcare including the area of sexual and reproductive health and population based health programs". Meaning global community could force America to sanction sterilization or abortion for the disabled at taxpayers expense.